St Edmund’s and St Peter's Church Prayer HubAs we pray this week and bring the concerns of our hearts to God let’s remind ourselves of the call to rejoice in the Lord. We can rejoice because we belong to God and to each other. We can rejoice because whatever we are going through God is present. As we enter prayer this week, whatever is on our hearts God is present and God loves us.You may like to use these suggestions for prayer this week:Sunday: We rejoice today in God’s unfailing love.Monday: For schools as they prepare to get ready to come back together nest week.Tuesday: For our government and the scientists as they guide us through the lifting of lockdown.Wednesday: For the nations needing support with supplies of vaccines.Thursday: For Paul and the ministry team as they seek God’s leading over these coming months.Friday: For ourselves, that we, both individually and as God’s people in Taverham and Ringland, may, Take up our cross and follow Jesus.’Saturday: Pray for our worship tomorrow.Please join us at 8am each day on Facebook for our Bitesized Prayer. Also, you may like to pause each day at 12pm with Christians all around the world who pray the Lord’s Prayer at their 12pm!! This is an ancient practice that unites us wherever we are in our unity in Christ.Attached is a sheet of the above in case you prefer to print a copy for reference
The livestreams are continuing with the following services being made available via the St Ed's Facebook page:Sunday 28th February 9:30 am Communion, Rev Phil/Rev Paul Sunday 28th February 11:15am Rev Paul (service sheet attached)Sunday 28th February evening 6.30pm with Rachel (for Sunday Club and the young at heart)Tuesday 2nd March 10am Tiny Tunes (music for all young people)Wednesday 3rd March 10.30am Rev Phil/Rev PaulWednesday 3rd March 5.00pm Evening Prayer Additionally at 8am daily (Monday to Saturday) we will be posting a ‘Daily bitesize prayer’ on the St Ed's Facebook pageWatch live if you are able --- or join later on 'catch up'.Everyone welcome.AdditionallyEaster services The bishop has indicated that he hopes churches will be able to hold services on Easter Day (April 4th) this year, depending on Government advice. We will plan for services as soon as we can, but this is not likely to be confirmed until the week before Easter (e two weeks after the schools reopen). Watch this space!St Peter’s Appeal A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to the appeal. Please pray for the ministry of St Peter’s at this exciting time. The appeal will continue until the end of March, as we explore the installation of a composting lavatory and running water. Any donations may be made by cash or by cheque payable to St Peter’s PCC Ringland and passed to Rev Paul. Thank you so much for your support.Annual Meetings for St Ed’s will be held this year but are going to have to be on Zoom! The dates are below, and Notices are in church - Nomination forms are on the noticeboard at the back of churchVestry meeting Tuesday 6th April 7.30pm on Zoom – To elect the churchwardens and re-affirm the assistant warden2020 APCM Sunday 16th May 12.30pm on Zoom – To confirm that the Accounts and Annual Report were circulated. To elect 3 Deanery Synod members for the period from 2020 to 20232021 APCM Tuesday 18th May a 7.30pm on Zoom – To elect PCC members, present Annual Report and the Accounts.Liz Ellis there will be a private family funeral for Liz at the West Suffolk Crematorium on Thursday 4th March. For all of Liz’ friends in Taverham you are invited to light a candle at home at 1.30pm, the time of the funeral and remember Liz in prayer. Donations in memory of Liz will be in aid of St Nicholas’ Hospice in West Suffolk and can be passed to Kevin Cobbold’s Funeral Directors, or passed to Rev Paul. We hope to remember Liz at a service later in the year.Bitesize Prayers If anyone would like to record a bitesize prayer (60 seconds – choose a few Bible verses and write a prayer) please let Rev Paul know. Everyone is welcome!WORLD DAY of PRAYER 2021 5th MARCHAs this year’s local service due to be at Drayton St. Margaret’s cannot happen, you can join a recorded service by women from Vanuatu where it was planned with the title ‘Build a strong foundation’ on the World Day of Prayer website www.wwdp.org.uk. Donations can be given by the website or texting to 70085 using the phrase 2021 WDP and adding the amount – e.g. 2021 WDP5. Sue Beevor has a few copies of the Service Book so phone her for this or any queries on 869772 Food Bank whilst we continue to collect food for the Norwich Foodbank there is now a local Foodbank for the local needs of Taverham, Drayton and Thorpe Marriott. We have a separate receptacle in church for these items.
Sunday Club on 28th February 2021 at 6:30pm via the St Ed's Facebook page will be thinking about ‘the bread of life’.Please see and print the file (1 page) attached to this item. The instructions on the template will help you to join in with the activity.All welcome.
St Ed's and St Peter's prayer hub for 21st FebruaryPsalm 34 I will always thank the Lord; I will never stop praising him.I will praise him for what he has done; may all who are oppressed listen and be glad!Proclaim with me the Lord's greatness; let us praise his name together! I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me; he freed me from all my fears.As we move further into the season of Lent we are reminded of our constant need for God’s strength and mercy in our lives. On Sunday we will hear the account of Jesus’ forty days and nights in the desert where he underwent the incredibly hard time of temptation. We too are often tempted. Like the psalmist, we can cry out to the Lord in prayer in our times of struggle, desperation and temptation, asking for his strength in times of need and thanking him for his goodness.Please use the following scripture verses this week as a way into prayer if you find them helpful.Sunday: The psalmist wrote, ‘This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice in it and be glad in it.’ Psalm 118:24 You may like to spend some time today giving thanks for who God is and for all that God has done.Monday: For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth. Romans 8:22 We acknowledge that the world is so far from all that God intended it to be. We hold before God the pain of the world into which Jesus came.Tuesday: Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out. 1 Corinthians 10:13 Life is hard for all of us with struggles and temptations. Hold before God all who are in the grip of addictions and struggles for which they feel there is no way out. Wednesday: Some people brought children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them... Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Mark 10:13-14 We pray for the children and young people who are struggling with all the effects the pandemic is having on them now and will have for many, many years to come.Thursday: You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Colossians 3:12 Ask the Holy Spirit to continue the work of grace in our lives of making us fully the people God created us to be, made in God’s image, reflecting God’s love.Friday: Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 We give thanks that God in Christ has made, and is making all things new; there is hope in Christ!Saturday: How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God's people to live together in harmony! Psalm 133:1 We give thanks for our life together in Christ and pray for each other as we prepare to worship tomorrow.Please join us each day at 8am each day on Facebook for our Bitesized Prayer.Also, you may like to pause each day at 12pm with Christians all around the world who pray the Lord’s Prayer at their 12pm!! This is an ancient practice that unites us wherever we are in our unity in Christ.Attached is a sheet of the above in case you prefer to print a copy for reference
